MOSCOW, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Global energy price reporting agency Argus has launched the Argus Russian Netbacks report, providing a detailed daily calculation of Russian crude and products netbacks. Netbacks, or export parity prices, are international market prices that exclude transportation and other costs of exporting. Argus Russian Netbacks has been available in English and Russian since15 February 2012.

Russia is a major global producer of crude and products, and a large part of its output is exported. For this reason, domestic market prices are often calculated at parity with alternative export values. This pricing method is used by buyers, sellers and market regulators in Russia.

Argus has published Russian netback values since the mid-1990s. Now, in response to higher demand from market participants and regulators, Argus has consolidated this information and presented detailed netback calculations for most export routes actively used by Russian crude producers and refiners.

The calculations reflect the actual export costs for supply routes used by each producer over the last 13 months. Argus publishes netback indexes for Russian crude, gasoline, naphtha, diesel, jet-kerosene and fuel oil accompanied by domestic market taxes (VAT and excise duty for different grades of fuel). Argus uses its own assessments of market freight and loading costs for crude and products on export routes.

"We are pleased that our detailed and unique work in calculating Russian netbacks is now available in a consolidated format. Our netback pricing brings transparency to this important market," Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said.

The methodologies for Argus Russian netbacks and for all Argus market reports are available online.

About Argus

Argus Media is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence and market data on the global crude, oil products, natural gas, electricity, coal, emissions, bioenergy, fertilizer and transportation industries. It is headquartered in London and has offices in Houston, Washington, New York, Portland, Calgary, Johannesburg, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, Santiago and other key centres of the energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company.